Rising Stars Lead Experience
Rounds two and three produced more exciting games at the NH Tournament in Amsterdam.
David Howell collected the full point against Ljubomir Ljubojevic, who imploded in the time-trouble to which he is sadly addicted. Ljubo used his 2 hour time allocation for his first 40 moves having played just 30...
Elsewhere, it took a miracle for Nakamura to escape with a draw against Van Wely (pictured). The American's never-say-die attitude paid off as Van Wely wavered and Naka stubbornly refused to give in despite being two pawns down at one point.
So, only one decisive game despite all the fireworks in round two, but round three saw the excitement spill over into more bloodshed, with the Rising Stars winning three games to take a clear lead in the match.
Nakamura leads the Rising Stars points chase with 2.5/3 after recovering from his round two antics to defeat Peter Heine Nielsen. Fabiano Caruana uncorked an opening novelty against Svidler's Gruenfeld to take the full point, and David Howell survived mutual time-trouble with Van Wely to secure the spoils.
So the Rising Stars lead 9½-5½ after three thrilling rounds.
| Round 2 | |
| Van Wely – Nakamura | ½ - ½ |
| Nielsen – Caruana | ½ - ½ |
| Svidler – So | ½ - ½ |
| Gelfand – Giri | ½ - ½ |
| Ljubojevic – Howell | 0 - 1 |
| Round 3 | |
| Nakamura – Nielsen | 1 - 0 |
| Caruana – Svidler | 1 - 0 |
| So – Gelfand | ½ - ½ |
| Giri – Ljubojevic | ½ - ½ |
| Howell – Van Wely | 1 - 0 |
The individual scores:
| Experience | |||
| Gelfand, Boris | ISR | 2739 | 2.0 |
| Van Wely, Loek | NED | 2677 | 1.0 |
| Svidler, Peter | RUS | 2734 | 1.0 |
| Nielsen, Peter Heine | DEN | 2700 | 1.0 |
| Ljubojevic, Ljubomir | SRB | 2572 | 0.5 |
| Rising Stars | |||
| Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2729 | 2.5 |
| Caruana, Fabiano | ITA | 2672 | 2.0 |
| Howell, David W L | ENG | 2616 | 2.0 |
| Giri, Anish | NED | 2672 | 1.5 |
| So, Wesley | PHI | 2674 | 1.5 |
